The Russian Foreign Ministry refutes the report about the presence of nuclear weapons in the DPRK

Official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko has refuted the report of the Japanese mass media that the DPRK allegedly possesses nuclear weapons, secretly brought from the Soviet Union, as well as MiG-31 fighters, purchased in Russia, and five tons of chemical weapons.

Answering the questions of reporters, the Russian diplomat said that "in search of sensations the mass media publish such information which comes from sources which do not deserve trust." As the RIA Novosti correspondent reports from Tokyo, the Japanese weekly Gekkan Gendai has published the interview in its June issue which was given by a North Korean deserter who asserts that allegedly the DPRK secretly brought nuclear weapons from the USSR in 1983 and then made dozens of pieces of its own nuclear weapons. The weekly says that the deserter is a former general of the Korean People's Army, but it does not give his name. It is also not known where he lives now.

This man said that the DPRK possesses four Soviet missiles, equipped with nuclear warheads, with a range of up to 800 kilometres. He also said that North Korea has 5,000 tons of chemical weapons. According to his data, in 2000 Pyongyang purchased in Russia more that twenty MiF-31 fighters and deployed them at the aerodrome Sunch'on, some thirty kilometres from Pyongyang.